People get so excited about moving house abroad sometimes that they completely forget to think about the aftermath and what a relocation actually entails. Yes, going to a foreign land sounds exotic and exciting, and it is like an adventure which will spice up your life and will leave you no time for boredom. And it probably will be, but only after you have dealt with the consequences of leaving your home far behind. There is a process that everybody goes through after switching locations and that process comes as soon as the moving company drops you off at your new place. That process is getting over home sickness.
You have to be prepared for home sickness or it might overwhelm you and make the transition much more difficult than it has to be. At the start, when the excitement of the big change starts dissipating, the feeling of being in the wrong place will appear. You will feel out of place, there will be confusion in your senses, a subtle or screaming feeling that something is wrong when everything is supposed to be okay. You will long for familiarity, for friends whom you spoke to just yesterday; there will be a certain weakness. Home sickness strikes when the change leaves you facing the unknown all alone. You will be reminded of how good home was around every corner, everything will remind you of something you had before you moved house, and the memory will always be heightened to fictional levels. Home sickness will appear even later, when you are getting used to your new life. Just when you think that you are on track, whenever you are facing a hard moment, there will be a familiar pang on your back, one to remind you of how good you had it before.
In actuality, there is very little you can do to treat home sickness. As long as you consider your home the better place to be, the sensation that you are in the wrong place will continue to emerge, and that goes double for when facing culture shock. Going abroad means constant reminders that you are out of your comfort zone and you are the one who has to get used to the environment. Moving house abroad is the time when you realise that the world does not revolve about you and that you are of no importance to this new land.
The best way to fight against home sickness is to strive to do your best to get accepted in the new place. You need to make acquaintances and find friends. Build relationships so that you have your own social circle once again. When you build your life to resemble the one you had back home, you will be more focused on moving forward and ‘home’ will be only a place in memory and where you will spend your Christmases. Once you achieve your successes in your new location, you will be able to deal with the pangs of home sickness as they will only be your memory telling you that there is still another home for you to get back to.
You can try to prepare for the home sickness before moving, but that would be a waste. When the moving van comes to take your things and you leave the home in good terms with everybody, you will think of it as the better place to be. Your only hope is to be practical, to be invested in your move and to focus on what is to come and the new world that awaits you. Only in that case will home sickness barely affect you when it visits you after the relocation.
